* Note: For this compilation, “I've Got Plenty of Nothing” was edited from the “Act II Medley from My Name is Barbra”, probably for time. The complete medley appears on Barbra's 1965 album, My Name is Barbra, Two.

§ “Guilty” contained a different lead-in on JFTR ... It begins with Barry Gibb counting down the song (“One, two...”)

About the Box Set

Released: September 24, 1991

Re-Released/Repackaged: December 8, 1998

Re-Released/Repackaged: July 1, 2003

Produced by: Barbra Streisand and Martin Erlichman

Engineered and Co-Produced by: John Arrias

Additional Engineering: Debbie Johnson, Frank Dookun

Project Coordinator: Karen Swenson

A&R for Columbia Records: Jay Landers

Art Direction & Design: Gabrielle Raumberger

Album Notes: Barbra Streisand

Dedications:

The 60's is dedicated to the memory of Peter Daniels who became my first accompanist in 1960.

The 70's is dedicated to my beloved Gracie whose laughter I still miss. And to my friend, Howard Jeffries, who would have liked this record.

I dedicate the 80's to my mother, who is 82 years old and still has a beautiful voice. And to Cis Corman who's been my best friend through the 60's, the 70's and the 80's.

It was 1983 when Streisand first mentioned Just For the Record publiclly. She told Gene Shalit, during an interview for Yentl, “I'm working on a retrospective album that's called Just For the Record ... This record will open with my demo at 12 years old.”

Barbra recorded “You'll Never Know,” the duet with her younger self that is the last track on Just For the Record, in April 1988 during studio sessions with Rupert Holmes. “Warm All Over” was recorded then, too.

Streisand's manager Marty Erlichman took out ads (one was placed in the back pages of American Film magazine) asking for fans to contribute rare material to the project. Tapes, kinescopes, and even an old wire recording were sent. “A lot of the old TV shows, like Johnny Carson and Mike Wallace's P.M. East, were all erased,” Erlichman told Entertainment Weekly. “So the only way to get them was if fans had them.”

Even finding some of the older, rarer tapes at Streisand's label, Columbia Records, proved to be a treasure hunt. “There were an awful lot of tapes that we knew existed that we couldn't find. And [Columbia has] big vaults in mountains.”

“If someone hadn't already taken the title, we'd have called it ‘Act One,’ " said Marty Erlichman. “The intention of the set is to give a ‘you are there’ quality. The project meant a lot to Barbra. When we first sat down to listen to the tapes, it was a very emotional experience for her. It brought back all kinds of memories.”

Karen Swenson, credited as Project Coordinator, assembled many of the recordings for Just For the Record. Barry Dennen's tapes, made when he and Barbra were friends, circa 1961, were considered. Dennen said he had early private recordings, as well as live recordings from The Lion and the Bon Soir. Marty Erlichman tried to work with Dennen so that the tapes could be included on JFTR. Eventually he gave up. “We did have plenty of material,” Swenson explained. “Obviously, money also factors into this. But it would have been a nice gesture on Barry's part to share a copy of the tape with Barbra—just to have it for her own archive.”

Photo, right:Poster, store counter displays, CD and cassette boxes were designed for Just For the Record.

Swenson told the L.A. Times, “A private collector had one of Barbra's Tonight Show appearances that we couldn't find anywhere else,” Swenson said. “And I found her Yentl audition tapes, with her sitting at the piano with Michel Legrand, in her closet—she'd forgotten she even had them.”

“During the course of gathering material for JFTR,” Swenson said, “I came across several collectors who did not want to share copies of tapes they had with Barbra. It's a strange way of thinking. Sure, a recording has value keeping it to yourself, but imagine the gratification of being able to share it with the very person whose performance gives it value in the first place!”

Not only did Swenson and Landers uncover rare tracks, sometimes salvaging the original recordings was required! “We had one tape that was in such poor condition that the oxide was peeling off,” Swenson recalled. “But we learned a neat trick—we sent it to an expert at Columbia, who baked it in an oven at 350 degrees, which somehow brought the tape back to life long enough for us to make a new copy.”

Jay Landers performed Artists and Repertoire duties on JFTR (A&R reps liaison between the artist and the record label). Landers told Barbra News, “Just For The Record gave me a chance to look through her archives and re-visit many aspects of her artistic accomplishments that were before my time. One day, it would be great to expand the box set with even more of the material we simply couldn’t fit onto the four discs.”

Landers also spoke to ICE newsletter and explained that Streisand was “completely involved” in selecting the material. “It's an unprecedented package; there's never been anything like it.”

Barbra told the press, “You don't know how difficult it is to listen to those things (the archival material). I picked a lot of the songs. For two and a half years they were trying to master them, engineer them, recut several things together, find the tapes, all that stuff. The last two months I had to write the notes.”

Streisand elaborated: “I started three years ago, talking into a tape recorder. Then when it was time to release it ... at the last minute it was a horror. That's why it took so long. It was supposed to come out at Christmas 1990. But we just got it out a few weeks ago. I didn't want both products out at the same time.”

A two-VHS tape video companion to the 4-CD set was prepared, utilizing rare footage of Streisand's career, but ultimately not released. Streisand talked about the video in 2005:

I've worked on it for years. It's four hours long. You know, it took so long to do the '60s, the '70s and the '80s, that I've never done the '90s or not to mention 2000s. It was supposed to be released with the — I never thought that it was quite good enough. Actually, when I saw that about a year ago, I thought, "Man, this is good." (Laughs.) I underrated it. It has to come out soon.

(Below: Two sides of a “Just For the Record” promotional flat)

Below:Stephen Holden wrote a glowing review for JUST FOR THE RECORD in the New York Times.

Billboard Charts

The Billboard 200 is a ranking of the 200 highest-selling music albums in the United States, published weekly by Billboard magazine.

Here's the numbers for this Streisand album:

Debut Chart Date: 10-12-91

No. Weeks on Billboard 200 Albums Chart: 16

Peak Chart Position: #38

Gold: 11/19/91

Platinum: 7/8/92

Gold: 500,000 units shipped

Platinum: 1 million units shipped

Note: The record company must submit an album to the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) where it undergoes a certification process to become eligible for an award. The process entails an independent sales audit, which calculates the quantity of singles or albums shipped for sale, net after returns. The audit surveys shipments to the entire music marketplace, including retail, record clubs, television sales, Internet orders and other ancillary markets. Based on the certification of these shipments, a title is awarded Gold, Platinum, Multi-Platinum or Diamond status. The data here comes directly from official sources, mainly the RIAA online database.

CD Packaging Notes

“Just For the Record” has been repackaged a few times since 1991:

(Above): The 1998 shelf-sized box configuration of JFTR (CXK 68614)

(Above): The 2003 repackaging of JFTR (C4K 89077)

Gabrielle Raumberger, who designed the packaging of Just For the Record, was nominated for a Grammy Award for Best Recording Package

The box set has had three different packaging iterations. With each one, the accompanying booklet changed slightly. Below are three examples of the same page.

(Above): The 1991 booklet was 11 inches by 5-1/2 inches and had a separate insert with photo captions.

(Above): The 1998 version of JFTR split the booklet into two CD inserts. The first insert contained abbreviated liner notes and photos from the '60s and '70s. The second insert contained the '80s. The photograph on the Burt Bacharach page was changed in the 1998 edition of JFTR. It's similar to the 1991 photo, but from a different angle.

(Above): The 2003 booklet was 9-3/4 inches by 5-1/2 inches. In this version, the photo captions were included as the last two pages in the booklet. Also, the alternate photograph of Streisand on the Burt Bacharach show as used here.

Columbia Records also put out a 12-track promotional sampler of the album (Columbia 4194).

The information contained in these pages represents historical documentation and is intended for personal, noncommercial and educational use only. You may not under any circumstance publish, use, make a profit from, or reproduce this material without the express consent from the webmaster. The owner requests that Tumblr users, blogs, Instagram users, etc. DO NOT POST PHOTOS FROM THIS SITE.

Any historical photographs of Barbra Streisand or multimedia files relating to her work included on these pages is provided for strictly non-profit research. The copyrights for these materials are held by the various respective owners.

The Barbra Archives website is fan-created and is not official. It is not officiated by Barbra Streisand, her management, Columbia Records, or other official parties. Barbra Archives cannot contact Miss Streisand or her management on your behalf.